The Human Sciences — Perspectives and Ethics

Because the human sciences study people, they are shaped by the perspectives of the researchers and raise ethical questions that pure natural science rarely faces. This lesson completes the AOK by examining both.

Perspective and value-ladenness

The human sciences are especially exposed to perspective. The questions researchers ask, the concepts they use, and the interpretations they favor are shaped by their culture, discipline, and assumptions. What counts as "rational" economic behavior, "normal" psychology, or a "developed" society embeds values that are not culturally neutral. Early anthropology, for instance, often measured other societies against the assumptions of the researchers' own, distorting the results. Recognizing this, many human scientists now stress reflexivity: openly exa